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Knock off the Bryant Hatin’

Laker superstar Kobe Bryant apologized for uttering the dread F word slur in a moment of rage and frustration at a ref’s call. Bryant made it perfectly clear that he is not a homophobe, and has nothing but respect for gays. The Lakers have apologized for the words and action. NBA Commissioner David Stern apologized and slapped Bryant with a $100,000 fine. But that’s still not enough. Gay groups want more. They demand that the NBA launch a full blown educational campaign and presumably anywhere else pro sports touches on the evils of anti-gay bigotry.
My guess is that even if the NBA agreed to that demand it still wouldn’t be enough. Bryant likely will be hounded, harassed, and heckled from here on out by gay groups whenever he takes the court, and that word that he used in a moment of dunderheaded rage will be eternally tossed in his face. But that’s to be expected.
He’s a superstar, a black superstar, and as was the case with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, any deviance, big as in the case of Vick and his relentless public pounding and having the legal book tossed at him for dog fighting, or small as in the case of Bryant for his utterance will be immediately pounced on by conservatives, advocate groups, and unreconstructed racial bigots as an I gotcha moment to prove that blacks are closet bigots, intolerant, and inherent homophobes.
The pattern has been repeated so often it’s become a ritual. And the reason is two-fold. It fits in with the racially conscience salving narrative that blacks have turned reverse racism and bigotry into a refined art, and that a bigoted utterance from a black celebrity, athlete, or notable is somehow the same as Birmingham, Alabama Police Commissioner Bull Connor unleashing the police dogs and turning the fire hoses on blacks marching against segregation in the 1960′s.
Blacks, in other words, have become America’s arch bigots, at a time when whites supposedly have long since buried racism. After all, wasn’t the election of a black president with millions of white votes the ultimate proof of that?

There’s more. Bryant and Vick are the pitch perfect poster boys for deviance and bigotry not solely because of what they did or said, but because of who they are. They have monster PR value for advocacy groups that can use them to pump their name, agenda, and cause. So Bryant is the latest to be slain on the altar of political correctness. It’s not about an apology, or a fine. It’s about hatin’ on a black superstar to snatch a headline.

Oh Earl, While maybe some are harshing on Kobe because he is black, I think that most can hate the sin without hating the sinner.

A stronger case can be made for the selective prosecution of Bonds. With all the white guys who used, who lied and evaded, they go after Bonds–who fits the stereotype you suggest of more than Kobe. How many millions of our $ to go after Bonds, when no one has been charged in Wall Street scandals? How much attention to Bonds when Big Mac is back in baseball and Sosa is walking the streets?

Yes, I do believe race plays a much greater part in in the Bonds case.
Jonathan